Muddy Buddies

I’ve been craving a handful of Muddy Buddies (also known as “Puppy Chow”) for a while now, and when I needed something quick and easy to take to a New Year’s Eve party, I decided to whip up a batch!

What you need:

9 cups Chex Cereal (any grain)

1/4 cup of butter

1/2 cup of peanut butter

1 cup of chocolate chips

1 tsp of vanilla

1 and 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

Measure out about nine cups of Chex (it’s ALMOST a whole box) and set aside.

Combine chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter.  Microwave for 1 minutes, take out and stir, and then microwave for another 30 seconds.  Try not to eat spoonfuls of this mixture. Add vanilla. Stir.

Add chocolate mixture to Chex.  Mix gently (you don’t want to break those little guys)!

Scoop mixture into 2 1-gallon bags (or 1 2-gallon bag, or 8 1-quart bags…you know, whatever).  Add powdered sugar and shake to combine!  Be sure to close the top of the baggie.  I forgot to do that today, and I got powdered sugar everywhere!

And ta da!  You’re done!  These puppies are light and chocolatey and delicious.  What more could a girl want?  Enjoy!

Don’t Stop Believin’

One of my favorite new shows on air this fall is the Fox series “Glee”.  I was hooked from the moment I saw the pilot released last spring.  Who knew campy covers of pop songs and show tunes could find a place on broadcast tv?!?  My favorite song that the Glee cast has covered is non other than the karaoke favorite, Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”.  You can watch the Glee cast sing it here:

While I love this song, I’ve been having some trouble with the lyrics…what exactly do they mean?  I’ve asked several people to help me figure this out, and I’ve done numerous google searches, but I’ve come up with empty-handed. Here are the lyrics:

Just a small town girl
Living in a lonely world
She took the midnight train going anywhere
Just a city boy
Born and raised in South Detroit
He took the midnight train going anywhere

A singer in a smoky room
A smell of wine and cheap perfume
For a smile they can share the night
It goes on and on and on and on

{Refrain}
Strangers, waiting, up and down the boulevard
Their shadows searching in the night
Streetlight people, living just to find emotion
Hiding somewhere in the night

Working hard to get my fill
Everybody wants a thrill
Paying anything to roll the dice
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

{Refrain}

Don’t stop believing
Hold on to that feeling
Streetlight people

Weird, right?  What exactly are “streetlight people” and what do they have to do riding a train at night?  And what are we supposed to be “believin’”???  Someone please explain it to me!  My sister’s theory is that these are the lost lyrics cut out of all of Journey’s other songs, while my husband thinks this may be one half of a two person conversation.  While I feel these are both possibilities, I’m still skeptical…any thoughts?

New Year’s Eve Parties

The hubby and I don’t have any big plans for New Year’s Eve this year.  We’re heading to LA the next day to fly out the following day to New Orleans where we’ll meet my family and embark on a cruise boat for my mom’s 50th birthday celebratory cruise!  If you are looking for ways to make the evening extra special, I hope some of these sites might help you get inspired!

This first pic is from MarthaStewart.com.  I think I only have one analog clock in my house, so I don’t know that this would work for me…but I do love this look!  Martha has a lot of cute New Year’s ideas here and here if you want to check them out!

This photo is also from Martha Stewart.com. To replicate this idea, just stick silver scrapbook sticker numbers on your standard champagne flutes!  So cute!

This next photo comes from the Hostess with the Mostess blog, but I believe the photo is originally from SocialCouture.com.  If you’ve never visited Hostess with the Mostess, I encourage you to do so right now!  They post oodles of fun entertaining ideas–from baby showers to bat mitzvahs!  They did this cute feature on New Year’s parties a few days ago.

I hope that you’ve been inspired! If you have any fun ideas, be sure to share them in the comments!

Thank You.

Danke. Merci. Takk. Asante. Gracias. Spasibo. Thanks.  However you say it, saying thank you is very important!  With all the hubbub finally coming to an end, it’s time to take a moment to thank all of those kind and generous people in your life who made this holiday season special!  Any form of thank you will do, of course, but I’m a bit on the traditional side and like to send snail mail (or hand delivered) cards.  If at all possible, I prefer to hand make the thank you cards.  I find that while I’m putting together a card, I have a few minutes to really think about the person I’m making it for. This helps me fully appreciate the gift or favor that person did for me, which in turn, helps me to write a better thank you note! I’ve been trying to improve my thank you note writing as of late.  Rather than write the boring,  ”Thank you for xxx, I plan to use it a lot…bleh bleh bleh, ” I’m trying to make them a little more thoughtful. So if you get a thank you note from me sometime soon, let me know how you’d rate it! :) Anyway, take a look at the thank you cards I made tonight! Be sure to look closely at the envelopes, too! Let me know which ones you like best!  Enjoy…and start writing those thank you notes!